Concert Review: The Afghan Whigs Embody Rage Rock At Brooklyn Steel
I have often said that music is a culture, and a song can be a world. I grew up on Hector Lavoe and Lauryn Hill, which made The Afghan Whigs completely rock my world. Their sound, demeanor, and desire from their audience is different to what I have known. Some rock stars ask you to listen to their music, but these guys demand you embody it.
There I was standing next to a girl head-banging so hard that I thought she would be the first person to get a concussion from hitting her head against air. She shook and jolted her body as if the melodies of “Light As A Feather”, “It Kills” and “Omerta” were actually electric wires cut and tossed into a watered crowd. She was so eager to invest in every raw, ravaged note of Greg Dulli. The man is the literal voice of every pain, sore, and demon you have locked in your brain convincing you that jumping off a bridge never killed anyone. Yet, having that capacity to carry auto-destruct in his voice is what drew a packed crowd at Brooklyn Steel.
To go to The Afghan Whigs’ show is to enter a world of darkness, but there is nothing to fear. Their amps had gothic, almost Biblical paintings of “sophisticated men” making deals with The Devil. It was an image that stuck with me as they raged through songs “Demon In Profile”, “The Lottery”, “Toy Automatic”, and “Matamoros”. The Afghan Whigs are not just feeding the inner demos an individual carries as much revealing the social ones we follow. Now more than ever, America knows what it is to have a fine suit cover a vicious wolf. i.e. politics. Thus, it makes sense that these legends marry the riot, revolution, and rage of knowing your personal self-loathing is sparked by society’s self- loathing.
In many ways, society is like a parent; he raises us and installs within our brains all the buttons he wishes to push to either rile or numb us. To go to an Afghan Whigs’ concert is like saying, “F*CK THOSE BUTTONS!” Their show is smooth discord that has the likes of Steve Myer jumping in to dance and riff as if he is The Prince of Punk Mania. Yet, the night belongs to the Afghan Whigs’ vast capacity to go from music artists to music entities. When you have the power to pull people’s bodies and minds like strings you can tie, break, or sew then you deserve to be a social entity. For More Information On The Afghan Whigs Click Here.
